Past and recent disasters have illustrated the need for healthcare facilities to have solid evacuation and shelter-in-place plans for patients and staff. The COVID-19 pandemic added a new variable to incorporate into planning efforts. Plans must incorporate pre-established community incident command and management structures as well as lessons learned from co-occurring disasters, mutual aid, and patient transfer and equitable loading efforts over the past several years. In some circumstances, sheltering in place protocols may also be implemented as a necessary means of protecting facility occupants (patients, staff, and visitors) from external or internal threats (e.g., security threats or chemical, biological or nuclear events). Recent incidents including civil disturbance in communities across the country have required healthcare facility implementation of lock down procedures/access controls. These factors also should be considered and addressed when planning for sheltering in place. For more information, visit ASPR TRACIE’s Active Shooter and Explosives and Workplace Violence Topic Collections. Information on Federal Patient Movement is included in the Patient Movement and Tracking Topic Collection.
This ASPR TRACIE Topic Collection was refreshed in August 2022. The resources in this Collection include plans, guidelines, lessons learned from recent events, and promising practices that can help healthcare facility staff develop evacuation and sheltering plans, and facilitate their training and exercise development.
Each resource in this Topic Collection is placed into one or more of the following categories (click on the category name to be taken directly to that set of resources). Resources marked with an asterisk (*) appear in more than one category.